Mutsumi

The title Mutsumi (睦) carries meanings of harmony, affection, and intimate fellowship in Japanese. As a kappazuri stencil print categorized as abstract, the work translates this emotional or relational concept into non-representational form — a mode of working that aligns Takahashi Hiromitsu with mid-twentieth-century Japanese artists who moved between figural and abstract modes within the hanga medium. Kappazuri stencil technique builds an image through successive applications of pigment through cut stencil sheets, each layer corresponding to a color area. The resulting surface lacks the grain impression of woodblock printing and tends toward flat, cleanly bounded fields of color, well suited to abstract composition. Without a narrative subject to anchor the image, the print's visual effect depends on the relationships between color, form, and edge — elements that could embody the concept of mutsumi through balance and resolution between compositional parts.